This year Google has brought us a multimedia rich Santa Tracker which will use street-view technology to help us follow Santa's big journey on Tuesday evening. Now there is an alternative to tracking Santa through the NORAD cameras. Which will you chose?

If you want a few genuine laughs this season, why not take a few minutes to put those camera photos to use and Elf Yourself? Choose your music and create an elf dance with the ones you love. You can use your your laptop to easily share a link to your video for free, or create an elf dance right on your mobile device and purchase the inexpensive video clip to download and share on the spot.

Class Badges is a free online tool designed to help teachers use digital badges as rewards for accomplishing learning goals. The badges can be a useful tool for teachers to keep track of individual student accomplishments as they help learners focus on making progress.I really like Class Badges because the badges serve as a useful reminder for teachers to work with students on an individual level to set goals and assess progress. If used appropriately, they can improve students' self-esteem as they work towards attainable goals. I believe this tool that can help teachers get a little closer to a 1-1 learning environment.

Are you looking for ways to use ThingLink? Are you wondering if you should sign up for the Free Educator Premium Upgrade before December 31st?Please view this extraordinary collaborative slideshow created by my talented friend, Donna Baumbach and follow her on Twitter @AuntyTech

It's no secret that ThingLink EDU is one of my favorite and most frequently used tools. I love ThingLink because it provides users with the ability to turn any image into a multimedia rich interactive graphic. Add video, images, audio, and links to any content on the web with the click of a button. Pack a lot of content into a small space and embed it into a variety of online learning platforms for easy access, 24/7. ThingLink is a user friendly and flexible tool that's just gotten better for educators!

We live in a computer powered world. Coding is the language our computers speak. Computer science is a top-paying college degree. Jobs in this market are growing at 2 x's the national average, yet the number of students pursuing computer science degrees has dropped in the last decade. In fact, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be 400,000 computer science students in the United States and 1.4 million computer science jobs. Women and minorities are extremely underrepresented in this group. Why such an enormous gap?